In 2008, a 100 Percent Chance of Alarm

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Big Don

Big Don

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Peer review and all that...
Roger A. Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado, recently noted the very different reception received last year by two conflicting papers on the link between hurricanes and global warming. He counted 79 news articles about a paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and only 3 news articles about one in a far more prestigious journal, Nature.

Guess which paper jibed with the theory — and image of Katrina — presented by Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth”?
yeah...
((Emphasis mine))
Pielke obviously doesn't know what he's talking about, he's only a University professor of environmental studies... (wait, someone will say that)
 

Xue Sheng

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Not wanting to get into this debate again but I will say sighting strengthening hurricanes really proves nothing. Based on data collected about Cyclones and hurricanes do follow decades-long cycles of strengthening and weakening. It is possible that this is a strengthening phase.

The big problem is that the climate is incredibly complicated and the planet and its systems are very interconnected and even computer programs that are written to figure some of this stuff out can take months to run to get to a possible conclusion. But mess up one system and you can have a very negative effect on several others.

And even computer programs that are written and run on computers take a very very long time to finish and give you one possible conclusion

But regardless of that labeling it Right Wing or Democrat or Republican is just that labeling it and not trying to figure out what is really going on, just more finger pointing.
 

CoryKS

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We don't need to know how it works, and we don't need to know why. We just need to keep feeding virgins to the volcano in order to appease Mother Gaia.
 

Andrew Green

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We don't need to know how it works, and we don't need to know why. We just need to keep feeding virgins to the volcano in order to appease Mother Gaia.


So global warming is caused by not feeding enough virgins, the current US administration is pushing a abstinence only program everywhere, with the goal of having more virgins to feed to the volcano.

Yee gods! All this time they've been the ones saving us from environmental disaster! Those liberal tree-hugging sex maniacs are going to doom us all due to lack of virgins!
 

FearlessFreep

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So global warming is caused by not feeding enough virgins, the current US administration is pushing a abstinence only program everywhere, with the goal of having more virgins to feed to the volcano.

Yee gods! All this time they've been the ones saving us from environmental disaster! Those liberal tree-hugging sex maniacs are going to doom us all due to lack of virgins!

That actually has a strange sorta internal consistancy
 

jks9199

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Without digging into any of the arguments about the whys and causation...

I agree with the writer's prediction. There'll be more alarmist shouts, from both sides, pointing at the same evidence, arguing that it means THIS and NOT THAT, finding talking heads that'll support their points of view. And there'll be less and less balanced coverage.

In fact, I'll go out on a limb and bet that we see this happen on a variety of fronts, not just the environment. I'm willing to bet that alarmism (environmental, financial/economic, social, and even on the terrorism fronts) will be an underlying theme in the Presidential election. I'd lay odds that by July 2nd, 2008, it'll be almost impossible to find the candidates actually stating their view, not screaming over the latest hot button...

Yeah, I'm a little pessimistic, huh?
 

FearlessFreep

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In fact, I'll go out on a limb and bet that we see this happen on a variety of fronts, not just the environment.


At least in the US this is because since WWII and McCarthyism, political extremes have been seen as dangerous so we as a country have become more in the middle, if you will. Problem is that when everyone clumps up and you have two opposing political sides, the people that want the power have to do something to distinguish them from 'the other side', so slight differences in opinion are magnified with rhetoric and vitriol. This includes the environment, free trade, education, national policy. It's Jack Johnson vs John Jackson, today
 

Ray

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Ummm aaaa :uhoh: I was talking about the Volkswagens... not George, Paul, John and Ringo... yeah thats it the Volkswagen Beetle. :uhyeah:


Oops sorry, I really need to read what I type more often
Now I'm more embarrassed than usual.
 

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